Lamar Sports

Rockies' Charlie Blackmon reinvents game on way to first All-Star Game

Charlie Blackmon became a sudden star this year by hitting .306 for the Rockies. He has 14 home runs and 52 RBIs at the break and will be on the National League team Tuesday at the All-Star Game in Minneapolis. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

When there's time, Charlie Blackmon sees a professional beard barber back home in Atlanta. That beard takes work to maintain. After Blackmon arrived at spring training in February, he looked like a different player. And the beard now needs a craftsman's touch.

But the beard is not a disguise. Blackmon really did become a different player. He's the same hard-charging hitter he once was. But there's something else, something more. And it turned him from a bubble player into an all-star.

He now carries a calmness and understanding that he belongs in the big leagues.

"This was the first time I've made the team out of camp. And even at that, I thought I was on the bubble the whole time," said Blackmon, 28.

"To be just a few months down the road, I could have easily not made the team, and now we're talking about an All-Star Game. It's a blessing. I'm really amazed at what's happened."

For the second time in his career, Blackmon reinvented himself. He moved from spot starter and backup outfielder to Rockies regular — and he's now among the premier leadoff hitters in the game, with a .306 average, 14 home runs and 18 steals.

Blackmon on Tuesday will represent the Rockies in the All-Star Game in Minneapolis — his first selection since debuting in the majors in 2011. He joins Troy Tulowitzki, playing in his fourth All-Star Game, as Colorado's selections.

Advertisement

Blackmon is the Rockies' first all-star leadoff hitter since Eric Young in 1996. And the beard, while a fun distraction, may actually hide how far Blackmon grew his game this year.

"It's somewhat of a unique path to the All-Star Game that he's taken," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "It comes down to a guy getting an opportunity and making the most of it."

Charlie Blackmon (John Leyba, Denver Post file)

The left-handed-swinging Blackmon crafted himself into one of the best contact hitters in the game. When swinging, he makes contact with 95 percent of pitches inside the strike zone — the eighth-best mark in baseball, according to FanGraphs.

"The consistent contact, his knowledge of the strike zone, are better than what he was last year," Weiss said.

Blackmon pegs his improved hitting numbers to minor tweaks, stemming from the regular field time needed to focus on incremental change.

"A lot of it had to do with making the team, comfort level, consistent playing time," Blackmon said. "Just being given the opportunity to make those adjustments as opposed to playing every few days, when you're just trying to compete at that point."

Small changes helped Blackmon in a big way. He specifically takes advantage of Coors Field's big outfield, where hits can fall with more space. And Blackmon sends hits to all parts of the field, with a nearly even distribution to left, center and right.

"I try to make changes every year," Blackmon said. "I try to shore up what I think are my weaknesses. Over the course of the season, there's something I understand, like, 'Hey, I need to do this better.' I felt like I changed my swing a little bit, but not enough to really go from a below-average player to an above-average player."

It's not the first time Blackmon recreated his game. He stood out as a left-handed pitcher at North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee, Ga., and at Young Harris Junior College in northern Georgia. But an arm injury ended his days as a pitcher. So he morphed into a .396-hitting outfielder as a junior after transferring to Georgia Tech.

After the Rockies drafted the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Blackmon in the second round in 2008, he was held back by a broken foot in 2011 and a staph infection in his right knee to start the 2013 season. But in the second half a year ago, Blackmon got his chance to play regularly in place of the injured Dexter Fowler.

In 82 games, Blackmon hit .309 with six home runs and 22 RBIs — but more important, he proved to Weiss he could be an everyday player.

"I felt good about Charlie because of what he did at the end of the season in 2013," Weiss said. "He showed enough down the stretch that he deserved to be on our club. I know he came to spring training having to fight for a job with a crowded outfield. And all those things are very valid. But I was leaning more on what he did at the end of 2013."

Blackmon was named National League player of the week in one September stretch after he went 18-for-36 with five doubles. That was only a prelude to his 2014 start.

In the Rockies' home opener, he went 6-for-6 with with three doubles, a two-run homer and five RBIs. On Friday against Minnesota, Blackmon went 5-for-5. He's one of only two players, joining Cleveland's Lonnie Chisenhall, with multiple five-hit games this season.

Blackmon said he has focused on hitting the ball up the middle and not trying to pull the ball for power. That change has rebalanced his swing and improved his on-base percentage from .336 to .350. With more contact in the zone, pitchers throw fewer strikes. And that leads to more walks.

It also increased his power numbers. His .306 average ranks sixth in baseball among leadoff hitters with at least 200 plate appearances. And his 14 homers trail only Troy Tulowitzki on the team. Blackmon's 52 RBIs are behind only Tulowitzki and Justin Morneau.

"I've said it from the beginning," Tulowitzki said. "He looks at himself in the mirror, and he wants to get better."

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.